Sunday Gospel Comment
Alberic Jacovone OSB
YEAR C THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT - 17.12.06 Zeph. 3,14-18; Phil 4,4-7; Lk 3,10-18 Our ‘great expectations’ & God’s “
A feeling of expectancy”
Today, Luke’s Gospel asks us to face our feelings & yearnings: it urges us
to walk into the story of John Baptist, & explore the feeling of expectancy
that the people of his time were being challenged with. Luke invites us to focus
on those eerie feelings that stir the consciences of all people, as they
anticipate a need to prepare, change & make ready for the coming of the
Lord. As we stay with today’s story, we (with all the believers of the third
millennium), are urged to join the crowd & sift through our own expectations
in the busy, complex life we lead, so that we may prepare worthily for the
Lord’s coming. We all need to purify our heart & intentions, & to pray
for the Lord to come & heal us. As we live year by year the rhythm of our
social & Church life, we cannot avoid a sad realization: namely that so much
of our life is caught in feelings of impatience & self-assertion,
self-importance & vain glory. Yes, the higher is our position in Church or
State affairs, the more we assert ourselves with innuendoes, gestures, customs
& rituals. At times, we foolishly send negative messages in pompous parades,
aggressive symbols, solemn postures, display of gold vestments, pectoral crosses
& rings;... messages that are more akin to a ‘Mardi-Gras’ extravaganza
than to a Christian expression of
faith. (Let’s not forget that up to a few years ago, Popes wore a cap with 3
gold crowns & those of us that held a Doctorate in Divinity were expected to
be called ‘Doctor’). It’s the age-old fallacy: we commit the sin of
usurping God’s role in life, indeed the keener our urge of self-importance,
the greater the longing, the temptation & the desire to be like God, &
to take God’s place & to oppress others. “A
longing for healing”.
To counter balance the damage caused by our lust for power, we Catholics give
ourselves the sobering time of Advent. Sadly, the sin of pride, in & out of
Church life, is at the root of all human ambition: it’s our greatest
temptation & is our gravest ‘mortal’ sin. It’s the very sin of Adam
& Eve, the oldest & most destructive sin of all, when they claimed to
‘be like God’. From them we inherited the longing for power, which always
hides a desire to take the place of God & oppress others. From this bedrock
of pride & spitefulness we need healing, & Advent is the time when we
face our life & long to be set free from the bondage of our own ambitions.
This year, let’s monitor our life through the age-old story of Adam & Eve
in the Book of Genesis: first, we identify our lust for power & the enormous
destruction it creates in our communities, then we put in place a prayerful
longing for inner-healing, forgiveness & reconciliation. Let’s learn a
lesson from the story of Adam & Eve: God walks in the Garden & calls:
‘Adam, where are you?’ Notice that this question is asked, not as if God
does not know the exact geographical location, where Adam was & what he was
up to... Rather it is meant as: ‘Adam (a word that includes all of us human
beings...), Adam, where are you... with your life?, Where is it taking you,
right now?...’ This is indeed a most challenging question for not just for
Adam, but for each of us -right now. It’s a question loaded with expectancy,
& requiring a response in faith & repentance; a longing for inner
healing... Fortunate are we this year, if we hold on to the essence of our
Christian ‘Good News’. The Incarnation is a mystery of love & humility:
God is born to us, in stillness & silence, in simplicity & surprise...
beyond our wildest dreams. This year let’s confess our sins & ask
forgiveness for the times when perhaps, we have been grasping, ambitious,
oppressive, destructive. ______________________________________ |
